Fuel tank cleaning/inspection ports. General Forum Forums

sigh.. inspect the tank carefully.. we have just found a leak in the bottom of our fuel tank. I spent all of yesterday pumping the fuel out into 5 gallon can's and am now having to search for the best solution to resolve the problem.

I would love to see the pictures of the fuel tank access ports mention above. I need as much info as I can get on the construction of the floors in that area and what would be involved in yanking them up. 

Scott

Yep... no fun... 

I think I am going to try what Jason did on Bohdran and cut in access ports in the top and clean and paint the inside with a fuel resistant epoxy. It seems the easiest method. The ports he got from seabuilt are a little pricey for me though so I will probably just tap and thread the tank and run some stainless bolts up from the inside coated in the epoxy to seal them to create studs to bolt a half inch thick piece of acrylic down as a hatch/port. I have just about everything on hand except the epoxy paint. The other option is putting a fuel bladder in the tank but I think that would be problematic in the long run.. sigh... of course painting it will probably be problematic also.

Jason, 

How long ago did you do this project and how has it held up?

scott

do the ports shown straddle the baffle? how does the baffle run in the DE38 tanks?

Does anyone know how the baffles run in a DE38 tank, if there are any?

scott

the tank is supposed to be 75 gallons in a DE38. I seem to remember though that that was an optional larger size?

The above link is for a fuel capacity per inch of tank from bottom to top for a DE38. However when I measured at the aft end of the tank through the fuel sender opening the tank was only 26 inches deep. So I am confused as the chart shows it to be 34 inches deep.

http://downeasteryachts.com/in.....acity-de38

This chart seems to show that the tank holds 75 gallons.

The factory specs  I have on the site show the DE32 to be 70 gallons and the DE38 to be 90 gallons

http://downeasteryachts.com/th.....-all-boats

I am confused by all of this. I was anticipating pumping a lot more fuel out of my tank before it was empty. I only pumped about 35 gallons out of it and I think it was only 3 to 4 inches down from the top of the tank when I pumped it out. It also seems to measure 26 inches deep rather than 34 inches deep which is given the shape of it drastically smaller in volume as it is 4 or 5 times wider at the top than at the bottom. I think I need to get a mirror or video scope in the sender unit and get a good idea of the layout before I start cutting  on stuff. 

By the time I finish with this project I will be able to document the exact size and shape of valkyrs tank as well as the capacity. I will be measuring the fuel going back in and will fill it all the way up. As well as calculating interior volume based on the shape and size.

It's never as easy as you hope is it.

as to the tank with the top cut off. How much access do you have to the inside to measure dimensions for and aft, side to side and depth both fore and aft. If you have access  to a good chunk of the volume of the tank through the top you might look at droping one or two plastic tanks in there. If you remove the baffle you might get a little bit of your capacity back. Maybe two tanks. one in the lower area and one over it in the wider upper area. If you have that much access to the tank  you even might use a rotozip or multimaster type power tool to cut the tank out in chunks and then drop a couple smaller tanks in its place. Or fiberglass in a new built in tank. Epoxy would be my choice for building it if you did that. PPG sells a version of Amerlock that is designed for the inside of fuel tanks

scott

SHT?

are you talking blackwater tank? I would never go back to having a marine head and holding tank system on a boat I owned. We went to the composting head a little over a year ago and we love it. No more odor issues or nasty maintenance. I need to write an update to the composting head topic now that we have used ours for a year.. will do that later today or tomorrow maybe. 🙂

scott

hehhehheh 🙂 oh I will 🙂 never doubt it 🙂

There is a definite downside in the composting head re the urine container needing to be emptied about every 3 days for 2 people. We have three of the containers which means we can dump them every 6 to 9 days of usage depending on if we dump two while the third is in use or dump all three at once.

The upsides for us at least is the lack of odor on the boat or in the head compartment, the gain of 2 and half compartments that plumbing and holding thanks occupied for more storage and for me the major one of knowing I wont have to deal with emergency repairs to the system and the attendant shit that went with that.

The contents of the composting head so far just smell like musty earth. no big deal, easy to dump every month and half or longer. taking and soaking the coir is a task but we just dump it in a 5 gallon bucket and add a gallon of water the day before we change the head. By the next day it's ready to go.

🙂

Hah!!! I was hoping you would get to the fuel tank first and take you usual great pictures of it so I could see what it looks like before I start cutting huge holes in my galley sole. 🙂 not sure exactly where I should cut out to make sure I get decent sized access hatches on either side of the  baffle 🙂 That I'm not sure where it is.

I purchased one of those Harbor freight knockoffs of the Fein Multimaster tool and a few specialized blades for it so that I can cut the cabin sole out. It will allow me to plunge cut the corners on a perfect 90 degree angle with a cut that is only a millimeter wide or so. For 49 dollars on sale the variable speed model it seems to be a great bargain. I spent an extra 10 bucks on their two year in house warranty. Bring it in and they give you a new one if anything happens to it. Just give them your phone number and they keep track of it.

Having read Jason's account of repairing his tank on Bohdran I saw he used the Fein Multimaster, so I went looking for one to buy and just about had a heart attack at the cost. 🙂 200+ dollars and the blades are 30+ dollars each. I expect the Harbor Freight unit to be cheaper quality but for an average cost of 8 dollars for blades of different types and 59 dollars overall cost for the tool, I can go through a lot of tools and blades before I get to the Fein's cost. I haven't used the unit yet but it feels substantial in the hand and came in a nice plastic tool case that had smaller case's inside it for holding the various blades. I probably spent as much on extra blades of different types as I did on the unit.

Over the years I have gotten more into the blades for tools. It's kind of like a camera it only takes as good a picture as the lenses you have.  What sucks is that good blades cost like crazy.